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REPORT 



Commission to Examine 



Normal Schools 



State of Vermont 



General Assembly 



1908 



ST. ALBANS, VT. : 

St. Albans Messenger Company Print. 

1908. 



REPORT 

OF THE 

Commission to Examine 

I 

THE 

Normal Schools 

OF THE 

State of Vermont 

v\ 

TO THE 

General Assembly 
1908 



ST> ALBANS, VT. : 
St. Albans Messenger Company Print. 

1908. 






n. OF 0. 
• 7 






REPORT OF THE COMMISSION TO EXAMINE THE 

NORMAL SCHOOLS OF THE STATE OF 

VERMONT. 

To the General Assembly of the State of Vermont : 

Under a joint resolution approved by His Excellency 
Governor Fletcher D. Proctor, December 14th, 1906, your 
Commission respectfully submits the following report in 
relation to the Normal Schools of the State of Vermont. 

The duties of the Commission are defined in the joint 
resolution, which reads in part as follows: 

"RESOLVED, by the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives : 

"That a Commission consisting of five members to be 
appointed by the Governor is hereby created and empower- 
ed to consider the present status and the equipment of the 
Normal Schools of the State, to compare the same with 
the Normal School facilities of other states, and to report 
to the General Assembly at the biennial session in 1908 
their findings and recommendations by bill or otherwise. 
Said Commission is empowered to call for and examine 
persons, books, and papers in relation to the Normal 
Schools."— No. 500 of the Acts of 1906. 

Acting under the authority conferred in this joint 
resolution, your Commission desires to report that it has 
found the present Normal Schools well conducted so far as 
conditions permit. The State Board of Normal School 
Commissioners is to be commended for the work it has 
accomplished with the inadequate means at its command. 



Your Commission is, however, of the unanimous opin- 
ion that the present Normal Schools do not adequately 
meet the educational needs of the times and are open to 
serious criticism as representative institutions of the 
State. 

It desires to call your attention to some of the more 
prominent of these defects. 

1st. Buildings. The buildings are poorly adapted to 
the modern requirements of Normal School education and 
do not meet even the present demands made upon them. 
The sanitary conditions, the lighting of class-rooms, and 
the general condition of the plants leave much to be 
desired. This is largely due to the fact that the State 
of Vermont does not own the title to any of the property 
now occupied for Normal School purposes; has no satis- 
factory lease of the buildings ; pays no rent and has author- 
ity to make only slight repairs, whereas extensive altera- 
tions are necessary to meet the growing demands of 
modern education. 

2nd. Financial Support. The appropriations for the 
Normal Schools are insufficient, and the lack of available 
funds has led to several unfavorable results : 

(a). The equipment of the buildings in supplies, 
apparatus, natural history collections, manual training 
material, etc. is inadequate. 

(b). The Normal School Commissioners, forced to 
offer meager salaries, are seriously embarrassed in secur- 
ing and retaining teachers of thorough preparation and 
rich experience. This results in a large proportion of in- 
struction that is unprofessional or experimental, and vir- 
tually makes of our Normal Schools institutions for the 
training of normal instructors who shortly leave for better 
paid positions in other states. 

(c). The enrichment of the course of study by the 
elaboration of present studies, by the addition of new 
courses, or by increasing the number of the faculty, is 
practically impossible. 



(d). The attractions to prospective students are 
limited, with the consequence that the number and the per- 
sonnel of the student body are unsatisfactory. It is gene- 
rally true of the State that capable graduates of high 
schools or academies who intend to teach do not attend the 
State Normal Schools, either contenting themselves with 
a high school education — which by a large number of school 
officials is regarded as fully equal to Vermont Normal 
School training — or, if financially able to do so, attending 
the Normal Schools of other states. 

3rd. Status of the Normal Schools. The Normal 
Schools are in no sense the pedagogical leaders of the 
State, and play little or no part in shaping its educational 
policies and standards. They do not fairly represent the 
dignity or the educational ideals of Vermont, nor can they, 
under existing conditions and in their present locations, 
ever assume their rightful place in these particulars. 

4th. Training School Facilities. The opportunities 
for affording Normal School students practical training in 
teaching and school management are lamentably poor and 
insufficient. The number of children in the model or prac- 
tice schools should be not less than three times as great as 
the enrollment of Normal School students, and for really 
satisfactory work should be even greater. The insufficient 
amount and the inferior kind of practice work now obtained 
by the Normal students are among the most serious defects 
in the present system. 

5th. Standard of Admission. The standard of ad- 
mission, and consequently the grade of work done by the 
students, is too low. The requirements for entrance are 
appreciably lower than those demanded by the State for 
entrance to high schools under the free tuition law of 1906. 
In the opinion of the Commission, however, the standard of 
admission cannot be materially raised so long as the Normal 
Schools remain in their present general condition. 

6th. Possibilities of Improvement and Growth. The 
outlook for the improvement and growth of the Normal 
Schools in their present locations is not encouraging. 



Under the existing conditions of ownership, extensive 
repairs and needed alterations are impossible, and without 
them the work will continue to be badly handicapped. The 
untoward conditions are inherent and not merely external. 

The boarding facilities for students are far from satis- 
factory at present, many residents even now furnishing ac- 
commodations for students at considerable inconvenience. 
It would be practically impossible, especially at Johnson 
and Randolph, to house any appreciably larger number of 
students, should the Normal Schools increase in size. 

The communities where the Schools are situated are 
small and not growing, so that there is no apparent pros 
pect of sufficient training school facilities. The Schools 
are, moreover, somewhat difficult of access from large por- 
tions of the State, a fact that militates against their best 
success. 

Although they are State institutions, the Schools are 
entirely dependent upon the good will of both the commu- 
nities where they are situated and of a few individuals own- 
ing or controlling the plants for the maintenance of the 
buildings, the provision of boarding accommodations, and 
the size and character of the training schools, — limitations 
that should not characterize State institutions. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



In view of the foregoing facts, your Commission de- 
sires to make the following recommendations : 

I. That a definite policy be adopted that shall contem- 
plate the successive replacing of the present Normal Schools 
by modern, adequate plants, with dormitories and ample 
grounds, the property to be owned by the State, and located 
in places convenient of access where sufficient and proper 
training school facilities are to be had. 

II. That the General Assembly authorize and order the 
erection of a new Normal School, with ample buildings, 



accommodations, and equipment, located in a town of suffi- 
cient size, easy of access from the eastern and central parts 
of the State, and that a sufficient sum of money be appro- 
priated for the establishment and maintenance of such a 
first class plant. It is further recommended that the new 
Normal School shall displace the present School at Ran- 
dolph, which shall cease to be maintained as a State Normal 
School when the new school shall be opened for students. 

The entrance requirements for such a School should be 
raised to graduation from high schools of the first class or 
its equivalent, and a correspondingly richer and broader 
course of study be introduced, one that shall include pro- 
fessional and scholastic studies, practical training in suffi- 
ciently large classes, elementary agriculture, and industrial 
training and domestic science. Such a central, high-grade 
Normal School could well conduct and supervise training 
classes in other towns not too far distant, and thus increase 
its influence and field of practical utility. 

III. That the Normal Schools at Johnson and Castleton 
be continued for the present, and that an increased appro- 
priation be voted for each of these Schools, as follows: a 
sum of $8,000 annually for each School and an additional 
annual appropriation of $4,000 to be applied to said Schools 
in the discretion of the Board of Normal School Commis- 
sioners according to the varying needs of said Schools, pro- 
vided that in no year shall the portion of one School exceed 
$2,500; that the appropriation for the Normal School at 
Randolph during its continuance be at the rate of $7,500 
annually. 

IV. That in any locality where a Normal School is 
situated, or may be located, the community shall enter upon 
a long-term contract with the State to furnish for the use 
of the Normal School a satisfactory training school with a 
guaranteed minimum number of pupils, and that such 
training school shall be conducted at the expense of said 
community, with the exception of the salaries of the critic 
teachers. Said training school should be under the pro- 
fessional supervision of the principal of the Normal School. 



e 

The privilege should be retained by the State of terminating 
such a contract at the expiration of any school year upon six 
months' notice. 

V. The Commission recommends that Section 965, Pub- 
lic Statutes, providing for the certification of graduates of 
approved high schools be repealed, and that the re-graduate 
courses as now outlined in the Normal Schools be abolished. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Frank L. Greene, 
Clarence H. Dempsey, 
Bert L. Stafford, 
L. Ethelbert Sherwin, 
Willis N. Cady. 



